Fatemeh Barani

Current Role: Product Manager

How technology helps us do good and give back

Food waste: we’re constantly thinking about it. More specifically, how we can reduce it. That’s where Fatemeh, a Product Manager in our Stock Surplus team, comes in. She’s tackling food waste head on – using technology, and all kinds of brilliant ideas, to get more food redistributed into our communities. Take it away, Fatemeh.

“As a Product Manager, you want to work on meaningful projects with impact. In Stock Surplus, I feel like I have a purposeful mission every day. That I’m really contributing to something. Because what we do in the team goes beyond helping colleagues and customers: it even touches the environment. We figure out how we can redistribute surplus stock from our stores so that less goes to waste, and it does more good, for more people.

Here’s how it works. When food is close to expiration, we start by reducing it in store. If it’s not sold by a certain time, we ping a message to local charities and let them know what’s available, along with a time slot to collect it. If it’s still not been taken, we put it into our Colleague Shop – which colleagues can take home for free. Anything remaining then gets turned into animal feed or renewable energy. It’s all about reducing waste, wherever and however we can. And what’s great is that it’s something everyone genuinely cares about.

“We’re now capable of sending thousands of donations in one day.”

But what about the tech behind it all? Well, we’re lucky enough to work with some exceptionally talented people. Through an API integration we built with our food donation partner, Food Cloud, we can automatically send those messages to charities about what food’s available and when to come to their local store.

Our back-end is connected to Food Cloud’s back-end, so when a charity accepts a donation, our colleagues are notified and can get everything ready for collection. Thanks to the tech and partnerships we have (including with FareShare and Olio), we’re now capable of sending thousands of donations in one day. And that boosts the odds of more food being redistributed into local communities.

“If there’s any little thing we can do to help colleagues, we do it.”

Then there’s all the work we’re doing around automation. Where before colleagues would have to manually look for the products to donate, now we’ve made it completely automated.

It means colleagues get more time back and can help more customers instead.

We also look at user experience for the front-end application. Tesco employs people from all generations and backgrounds, so we made sure the food donation app itself is super easy to use – for everyone. If there’s any little thing we can do to help colleagues, and make life simpler for them, we do it.

“There’s so much opportunity – the ideas never stop coming.”

I joined Tesco almost two years ago, having previously worked with start-ups. I realised that at Tesco, I could have the best of both worlds: innovation and stability. With it being such a large organisation, I knew I could make a bigger impact too. There’s so much opportunity in this space – the ideas never stop coming. We’re inspired by everything around us.

From my own experience volunteering in soup kitchens, I could see for myself how much people relied on food donations. And how much more we could be doing to help. With Tesco, we have the power to do so. We have the power to make decisions. And there’s a lot of internal support for these kind of initiatives. For pushing forward and doing better and better. Because everyone here knows it’s the right thing to do. We all care.

“It’s about doing good and giving back.”

That sense of care is felt individually, too. I’ve got a great line manager who’s genuinely interested in my career growth, mental health and wellbeing. He supports me. Empowers me. I can be completely open and honest with him. I’m given the headspace to balance both work and family commitments, and I don’t ever feel like I have to compromise on one or the other.

So the thing to remember about working at Tesco is that it’s not all about profit. It’s about doing important work together as a team. It’s about supporting one another. It’s about doing good and giving back. And if you want impact, this is the place to be.”

Being part of our Technology team means you get the time and tools to try new things. Like the ideas that make life a little better for our customers. And the career progression that makes life a little better for you, too.